Spiritual Abuse

While attending Dr. Dale Ryan's class regarding abuse this morning, we came across an interesting subject... Spiritual Abuse. This subject fires me up in some unusual ways and I will be working through trying to articulate why I get so fired up about spiritual abuse. It really is amazing to me when I begin to contemplate so many of the things that followers of Christ naturally do without considering the implications of the possibility of abuse. The following is just a brief seven-point paradigm from my notes designed to begin the conversation on how spiritual abuse can manifest within systems of people...

-7 types of Spiritual abuse
-Any kind of abuse can be linked to spiritual abuse.
-Some abuse is spiritual abuse bc it takes place in a spiritual place or done by someone who has spiritual authority.
-The use of spiritual truths or practices to do harm rather than good.
-Some abuse is spiritual abuse because the victim is perceived to be in a position of spiritual authority.
-Coercive spirituality can be spiritual abuse.
-Some abuse is spiritual abuse because it invokes divine authority in order to manipulate people into performing behaviors which meet the needs of the abuser.
-Some abuse is spiritual abuse because it holds our relationship with God hostage to some kind of performance.